US pre-open: S&P 500 set to hit new record as futures rise

US stock futures were pointing to a positive start to the new trading week, with the S&P 500 poised to set a new record high ahead of a busy week for corporate earnings.

Futures were up 0.6% for the Nasdaq, 0.2% for the Dow and 0.3% for the S&P 500 – the latter set a new all-time closing high of 4,839.81 on Friday.

"This week sees the first of the so-called ‘magnificent seven’ stocks report, with Tesla earnings due after the bell on Wednesday," said analyst Joshua Mahony from Scope Markets.

"However, traders have been looking for clues elsewhere over the potential trajectory for AI stocks, with signs of strong demand at Supermicro Computer (cloud) and Taiwan Semiconductor (chips) helping to lift expectations of how the big tech stocks will perform."

Results from Tesla, IBM and Netflix will be in focus this week, along with central bank decisions in Japan and Europe on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

On home shores, the US economic data schedule looks relatively sparse this week, though the personal consumption expenditures index – the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation – will make headlines on Friday. The index is forecast to show that the annual rate of inflation eased to 3.0% in December from 3.2% in November – which was already the lowest level since April 2021.

“ [The data should] provide further evidence that inflation is slowing back to the Fed’s target and laying the foundations for the Fed to begin cutting rates this year,” said economist Lee Hardman from MUFG.